“Barcelona has been taken. A miracle? In a month, we can say that the whole of Catalonia has been conquered. The calls giving us the news began early yesterday morning. It was incomprehensible and it was untrue. Barely a single squad from the vanguard had reached Can Tunis or the first houses in L’Hospitalet. Today, the news is being given out as the truth. At quarter to one, the radio in Burgos was saying that the Nationalists were on Tibidabo. Later, they informed us that the troops were in Plaça Catalunya at two. You could see this coming after the rapid advance of the last few days, but nobody expected it would be so fast. An entente? A flight? Who knows. It appears that the government had fled to the Girona area. And with the government gone, the populace, who, after so much suffering wanted freedom, will have breathed and the extremists will have fled in panic. Barcelona has been taken. Oh, Barcelona!”
(Raimon d’Abadal i Calderó, Dietari de guerra, exili i retorn, 1936-1940, Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, Barcelona, 2001, p. 337 [Thursday, 26 January])

Raimon d’Abadal i Calderó